RE: Best Documentation

["Kathi Jan Knill" <Kathi -dot- Knill -at- level8 -dot- com>]

~~Tony Markatos responds:
~~Lets say that someone hires a world-renowned designer to build
~~his/her dream home.  Would that person then botch the whole effort up by
using cans of
~~spray paint to paint the walls?  Possible, but not likely.
~~

Tony,
I have to come back on this one because I truly believe that
you are not seeing a very important point here.
Let's go with the example you used (that I snipped above).
A designer designs a dream home.
A builder builds the home according to the design.
True IF the builder builds the home exactly to spec/design, one would expect
that the dream home would be built successfully.
However, builders do screw up. They don't always follow the spec/design as
they
should. And what you end up with, even though a world-renowned designer
designed the home, is a problem home.
There was nothing wrong with the design, planning, etc. It was strictly in
the
EXECUTION that the problems arose and caused the project to fail.

This same idea can be used to think of a writing project. No matter how much
planning, analysis, etc. that you do, if you give the project to a bad
writer, the
finished doc will be a failure or close to, if the writer cannot write well.

I am sure that most of us have seen this kind of thing happen. I also
recognize that
we have probably beaten this subject to death. You will not be persuaded
that it
is possible to screw up a writing project stricktly by poor writing. And I,
and others,
will not be persuaded that as long as all the "up-front" work is done
properly, the
project cannot fail.

So, let's leave it alone. Okay?



Kathi Jan Knill
Sr. Technical Writer
Level 8 Systems
Kathi -dot- Knill -at- Level8 -dot- com
The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is unchangeable or certain. ~
John F. Kennedy ~